GC2018: Day 9 Highlights
FOUR MORE MEDALS AS TEAM WALES PASS AUCKLAND MARK
Silver for Charig in first Wrestling final for Wales
Hoop routine brings silver for Halford
McDonagh claims Bronze, as two progress to Finals
4th Shooting medal as Wixey takes Olympic Trap Bronze
Wales Men’s Hockey defeat South Africa in final match
Stacey faces Table Tennis bronze match in TT6-10 singles
Men’s Bowls Fours denied medal against England
Wales is now on 29 medals in Gold Coast (7 Gold, 10
Silver, 12 Bronze) beating previous overseas record of 25 in Auckland
1990. We are currently 10th
in the Medal Table.
Team Wales Chef de Mission Nicola Phillips said:
“It’s a fantastic achievement to pass the 25 medal mark and we hope to add more in the final few days of competition. Our athletes, across all 15 sports, have been truly outstanding and they deserve the praise that is now coming their way.
“The goal we gave to our athletes was to get more personal bests, and highest placings, than we’ve ever had. They have done it brilliantly, and that is now reflected on the medal table.
“The whole 200-strong team has performed with passion and commitment and we applaud that remarkable effort. We hope they inspire others to get involved in sport.”
WRESTLING
Wales’ Kane Charrig made history today, as the first Welsh wrestler to reach a Commonwealth Games wrestling final.
Charrig, 26, won silver in the 65kg category, after losing in the final to Bajrang from India.
Earlier, the former judoka and British number 1, had made swift progress through the early stages of the competition, beating the eventual bronze medallist from England without conceding a single point.
He then repeated the achievement in the semi-final against Bandou of Mauritius, gaining victory by technical superiority without conceding a point.
His appearance in the final was the first time a British wrestler has made a Commonwealth gold medal contest since 1994.
After receiving his silver medal, an emotional Charrig said, “This is medal made of blood, sweat and tears. I work hard and I wanted to come home with something that I can proud of.
“I am disappointed as I didn’t really get going in the final. He was very slick and skilful.”
Team Wales have won two wrestling medals in Gold Coast, following Curtis Dodge’s bronze yesterday.
“Our success is build on togetherness,” said Kane. “Without Sport Wales, and Sue and Alan Jones (coaches) we wouldn’t be here. We are growing and we will be back next time.
“As long as we can keep the system going, and put in lots of work from now, the sport in Wales can grow. Us winning medals is making things possible for people in the future. It’s a snowball effect.”
GYMNASTICS
Laura Halford won a silver in the Individual Hoop competition, with a brilliant display on the final day of the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition.
The 22 year old from Cardiff, who has now won four Commonwealth Games medals her career, was given a score of 14.000 to claim second place, with her team-mate Gemma Frizelle in eighth.
Halford said: “I’m really pleased with that score. All the pressure adds up and it’s easy to miss a catch or over throw, but luckily that didn’t happen and I’m walking away with a silver.”
Halford also came close to a medal in the Individual Ball and Ribbon finals, finishing fourth in both competitions.
BOXING
Welsh boxers Sammy Lee and Rosie Price will both box for Gold tomorrow, after impressive performances to win their semi-finals.
Price, who also has 52 football caps for Wales, cruised through after beating Canada’s Tammara Thibault and will fight it out for the 75kg title tomorrow.
Whilst Sammy Lee, a Gold medallist at the Commonwealth Youth Games last year, also impressed in a gritty performance in the Men’s 81kg semi-final against Australian Clay Waterman.
“I’m so proud to be Welsh tonight. I wouldn’t want to be any other nationality. All my focus is on getting back in that ring tomorrow and I honestly can’t wait.”
Mickey McDonagh was the first Welsh boxer in action in the men’s 60kg semi-final. He faced Australia’s Harry Garside and despite putting up a valiant effort wasn’t able to secure his place in the final against an Australian who had the entire arena behind him. McDonagh will receive his bronze medal tomorrow night.
SHOOTING
Wales’s shooting team won their fourth medal of the Games today, as Sarah Wixey won bronze in the Women’s Olympic Trap.
She qualified in first place after a shoot-off and carried that momentum into the final to win Bronze.
The total of 4 medal makes Gold Coast 2018 Wales’ most successful shooting campaign at a Commonwealth Games.
Sarah’s husband Mike Wixey finishes his Men’s Trap competition tomorrow alongside team-mate Jon Davis. With 75 qualification clays left to shoot, Mike is in joint 4th position, and Jon is only 3 clays behind despite competing with a fresh knee injury and limping between stations.
Sian Corish concluded her Games competitions with the Women’s 50m Three Position Rifle competition. In a very strong field, Sian narrowly missed qualification for the final by one point, the smallest possible margin. With higher quality ‘bull’ shots, Sian scored a higher ‘X’ count than some above her. However her points did not quite get her into the final.
Sian’s team-mate Mike Bamsey competes in the Men’s 50m Three Position Rifle competition tomorrow on the final day of Gold Coast 2018 shooting.
LAWN BOWLS
It has been a tournament to remember for the Lawn Bowls team despite defeat in the Men’s Fours at the Broadbeach Bowls Club on Friday afternoon.
They will leave Gold Coast with three medals, more than meeting their expectation for the Games after disappointment in Glasgow four years ago.
The quartet of Ross Owen, Stephen Harris, Marc Wyatt and Jonathan Tomlinson faced a stiff task against England to add a bronze medal to their tally and started well in the blistering heat.
But although England fought back to seal a 15-9 victory, Team Leader Hazel Wilson was left proud with her team’s accomplishment in Australia.
“I could not be more pleased – we hope we have inspired people back home to take up the sport with our success in Gold Coast,” she said.
“We’ve come to Gold Coast and competed against the best players in the world and more than held our own. We’ve proved we’re a major player in the sport.”
SQUASH
Welsh squash duo Tesni Evans and Deon Saffery missed out on a semi-final in the Women’s Squash Doubles by the closest of margins.
They were seemingly on the verge of victory in their quarter-final against Rachael Grinham and Donna Urquhart of Australia.
Wales won the first game 11 – 9 and looked like they would cruise through the second after gaining a 9 – 1 lead.
But Australia, with the crowd at their back, made the most of Welsh errors, getting back into the game to win it 11-10.
The disappointment was hard to shake off, and it appeared to affect Evans and Saffery in the final game.
The home team sealed the deal, winning the third and final game 11 – 3 knocking Wales out of the competition.
Evans, the Singles Bronze Medallist, said, “Our legs weren’t there in the last game and we struggled. Massive respect to Australia – they put in a great shift to come back the way they did.”
ATHLETICS
Sally Peake finished 10th in the Women’s Pole Vault Final with a season’s best height of 4.30m. Sally cleared heights of 4.00m, 4.15m and 4.30m before three failures at 4.40m.
Morgan Jones made an impressive Commonwealth Games debut, finishing 4th in theMen’s T47 100m
Final in a time of 11.93.
Jon Hopkins and Ieuan Thomas both produced strong performances in the Men’s 3,000m Steeplechase Final on Friday morning. Hopkins finished6th in a time of 8:34 whilst Ieuan finished just behind in 7th in a time of 8:40.
Cardiff athletes Tom Marshall and Rowan Axe made their Commonwealth Games debuts in the Men’s 1500m heats. Both finished 8th in their heats and missed out on tomorrow’s final.
RUGBY 7s
Wales got their Women’s Sevens campaign underway with defeats by Australia and Fiji at the Robina Stadium on Friday night.
The hosts are the big favourites to add to their Olympic crown and showed their class in the first match with a comfortable win, running in six tries in the Pool B opener.
However the Welsh produced a spirited display and were rewarded with a try of their own through Jasmine Joyce in the closing stages.
“It was outstanding. It builds up our confidence by getting a try against the world’s number one team,” said Sian Williams, Wales’ first full-time professional female rugby player with the RAF.
Joyce, who was the only member of the Wales squad to feature in Team GB’s Olympic Games squad in Rio two years ago, ran in a second in the defeat by Fiji two hours later.
Fiji started well, with a try inside two minutes.
Gemma Rowlands pushed hard to get the ball out of Wales’ half but with little luck, as Fiji’s imposed themselves on the game and secured another converted try with four minutes to go in the first half.
A great break shortly after saw Hannah Jones make a breath-taking run towards the Fiji try line but she couldn’t quite get there with the Fijian defence strong.
At half time, the Welsh trailed by 19 points without reply.
The second half saw much of the same with the Fijian attack dominant and they added a further two tries. Wales stuck to their task when Joyce popped up with her second try of the evening to hand the Welsh a hard-earned consolation.
“It’s a massive learning curve for us,” she said afterwards.
“We are the only amateur team here so it makes a big difference to us to perform against teams of this quality and in front of big crowds like this.”
TABLE TENNIS
With a place in the men’s TT6-10 singles final up for grabs, 18 year-old Joshua Stacey had everything to play for in his semi-final against England’s Ross Wilson this morning.
Stacey is no stranger to competing at the highest level having twice competed at the European Youth Championships, and started strongly against the Englishman winning the first game 12-10.
But Wilson found his form in the second match and cruised his way through to the final winning the remaining games 11 – 2, 14 – 12, 11 – 9.
Stacey will now play Theo Cogill from South Africa tomorrow for the bronze medal.
HOCKEY
Wales’ Men’s Hockey team claimed 9th place in the Gold Coast tournament with an impressive 3-2 victory over South Africa.
Wales had fallen behind in the second quarter, but levelled through Gareth Furlong penalty corner before half-time.
James Carson then gave Wales the lead in the 42nd minute but it only lasted four minutes as South Africa were soon back on level terms.
But three minutes from time, Carson again showed killer instinct from a penalty corner to claim the match and end the campaign with a well-deserved victory.
Carson said: “”It was a good team performance. We didn’t start particularly well, but we stuck to our principles and we knew if we played the way we could, then the result would take care of itself.
“The last couple of matches we’ve conceded late goals, so it was our time to score a late goal.”
Gareth Furlong added: “We’ve pushed some of the top teams a lot closer than we did in Glasgow. We were quite a young group, but we had a rebuild after Glasgow, and losing by one goal to India (3-4) and England (2-3) shows how far we’ve come. The challenge is now for the next four years to see if we can go a little bit further.”
It was a point reinforced by coach Zac Jones: “I think we’ve made some massive strides over the last 18 months. To be honest, I think it’s playing at this level of competition more often, that’s the bottom line for us. You only learn from being in those situations over and over again.”
For a full schedule for Team Wales on Saturday 14th
April, please go to: https://results.gc2018.com/en/all-sports/schedule-wales.htm